Tens of thousands of people gathered in Petaling Jaya outside Kuala Lumpur over the weekend to take part in nationwide rallies to contest the results of the May 5 elections. The series of rallies are known as 505 Suara Rakyat or People’s Voice 505 – named after the May 5 elections that saw the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition returned to power despite having lost the popular vote. Three weeks after the results were announced, Malaysians are still protesting against the outcome of the 13th general elections which they claimed were tainted by electoral fraud.
While they are demanding for the immediate resignation of the Election Commission (EC) chairman Aziz Yusof and his deputy Wan Ahmad, it remains to be seen how long this momentum can last.
Anything But Umno (ABU) movement leader Haris Ibrahim believes the protest will go on until Mr Aziz steps down.
He said: “This mood is not going to go away. I think we are going to see this momentum continue. (For) How long? I don’t know, but certainly, I think the immediate thing that people understand is as long as the current (EC) leadership remains, the reforms that we want are not going to happen so I think this mood is going to sustain until we see Aziz (Yusof) and Datuk Wan (Ahmad) step down.”
Mr Aziz and his deputy have been heavily criticised for their failure to act independently.
Full Article: Malaysia’s Election Commission comes under fire – Channel NewsAsia.
The Voting News
A News Service of the Verified Voting Foundation
